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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26279638">Communication is Key</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BisexualSpies/pseuds/BisexualSpies'>BisexualSpies</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Voltron: Legendary Defender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Blade of Marmora Keith (Voltron), Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith and Lance save Shiro, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Fluff, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance misses his family, Letters, Lonely Lance (Voltron), M/M, Mutual Pining, POV Alternating, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Red Paladin Lance (Voltron), Rewrite of S6 basically, Supportive Keith (Voltron), lance misses keith</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 06:41:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,434</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26279638</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BisexualSpies/pseuds/BisexualSpies</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Lance feels all alone after Keith leaves team Voltron. Everyone else is busy fulfilling important duties, and all Lance can do is sit and cry about his unnecessary place on the team. To distract himself from his pain, he writes letters to his family and his friends. He even writes one to Keith (an embarrassing one at that). Thank God no one's ever going to get their letter though, right?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Keith/Lance (Voltron)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>63</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Communication is Key</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is the first chapter of this fic! I hope you all enjoy it!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lance couldn’t sleep. He had been awake for hours, staring idly at the ceiling awaiting the arrival of slumber, but it never came. He tried everything as well - counting sheep, listening to soothing music, everything!</p><p>But nothing worked.</p><p>That’s what brought him here, the observation deck. The universe was so bright, yet so dark all at once and Lance couldn’t pull his eyes away from the glistening sky. It was so beautiful. And it hurt so bad. He had always dreamed of this; exploring the galaxy was always his dream. But now that he was actually here… Well.</p><p>It’s just different. Don’t get him wrong, Lance loves saving lives and helping people and restoring balance to the universe and all that fun, crazy jazz… But sometimes he kind of wishes he had never snuck up onto the roof that night. Maybe if he had actually listened and behaved for once he would be back on Earth, back home. Surrounded by his family.</p><p>Lance didn’t realise he had been crying until a droplet landed against his knee. He pulled his legs closer to himself, hugging his knees to his chest as he let the cascadence fall faster. His tears were blurring his view and his throat felt like it was being ripped apart from the mixture of sobs and hiccups escaping from it.</p><p>When will this all end?</p><p>Lance couldn’t do this much longer. Everyone he loves is a million lightyears away, they probably think he’s dead. He needs them. He needs his mama’s hugs and Veronica’s snide remarks, and Rachel’s bossy attitude. He needs his family.</p><p>He wished he could talk to them, tell them all the stories about how he’s the greatest sharpshooter the world has ever seen. Or how all the alien ladies flock to him for autographs. Or that one time Keith and he did-</p><p>Keith.</p><p>Lance took a deep breath in, his chest shaking as he did so. The tears stopped falling and the world was silent.</p><p>His vision was no longer blurry, but the thought of Keith threatened its return.. He needed to take his mind off of this somehow.</p><p>Standing up on shaky legs, he makes a plan. He may not be able to literally talk to his family, but he can still communicate with them someway. At least, in a one sided sort of way, which is always better than a no sided sort of way. </p><p>As he walks back to his room he wipes away the tear tracks on his cheeks.</p><p>The boy makes it back to his room in one piece, collecting the needed material before sitting down at the bleak, metallic desk in the corner of his room. He’s going to write a letter to his family. Maybe he’ll even write some to the rest of the team.</p><p>No that would be way too embarrassing. Although, it’s not like he has to actually send them or anything, right? He can just write them for the sole purpose of writing them. He just needs to get all of his thoughts out of his head.</p><p>Especially since his mind has felt like a jumbled mess of scribbles for the past few weeks.</p><p>Lance scratched at his head with his pen as he thought. Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.</p><p>He’ll write one to his family, and then he’ll write some to his teammates as well. Yeah.</p><p>Lance began writing, talking to his parents about how much he misses Varadero Beach and garlic knots, and bullying Rachel for the awful haircut she got before he left in a flying blue lion. He wrote about his adventures and how the alien ladies were all over him - especially Princess Allura (and yes, that might be a bit of a stretch, but it’s not like anyone needs to know that). </p><p>Besides, this is just for him to read.</p><p>He finished his family's letter off with an i love you and began writing to his teammates.</p><p>Hunk was of course very easy to write to, they’d known each other basically their whole lives. It was kind of fun recollecting on all their past childhood memories together and he’ll be sure to bring some of them up to Hunk once everyone’s awake. He even thanked him for trying to recreate garlic knots, even if it didn’t work out and ended with half the kitchen on fire.</p><p>Pidge’s letter was also pretty easy to write. Of course, the two of them hadn’t known each other as long as Hunk and he have, but Pidge was like a little sister to Lance. Their relationship almost reminded him of his and Rachel’s. You know, sibling bickering and teasing comments. Pidge had told him once that she had felt the same way, that Lance reminded her of Matt a tiny bit. She was all sleep deprived and sad at the time, and she would never admit she’d said something so soppy.</p><p>Allura was in for a treat with her letter. She wasn’t going to get it, but it’s still a treat. Lance started it off with a few flirtatious remarks and compliments and love confessions - all in good fun of course - but slowly it became more and more serious. He talked about how she’s really helped him mature and how much he respects her and what great a leader she is. He even confessed that he’s not as hopelessly in love with her as he pretends to act, and that she’s probably one of his closest friends.</p><p>Coran’s letter was fun. Lance has always been able to joke around with Coran, so he kept the same habit while writing his letter. He made jokes about his terrible dye job (an inside joke between the two of them) and how he always has crumbs in his mustache. But he also thanked him for being there for him, even when they barely knew each other, Coran was always there as a shoulder to cry on and Lance was able to find comfort in him. They both miss their families.</p><p>Writing Shiro’s letter was awkward. Lance has looked up to him for so long, Shiro is one of the main reasons why Lance loves space and piloting so much. And he made sure to tell him that. But recently, things have just been different. Shiro’s been different and for some reason it just doesn’t feel right to tell him all of these things. But he does. He pushes down his cautiousness and writes to Shiro like it’s Shiro and not some weird version of Shiro. Because it is Shiro. It has to be. He thanks him for leading and for joking around with him from time to time. And of course he has to bully him for that atrocious haircut (who allowed that?).</p><p>There was one more letter to write. The most important letter to write. Lance almost thought about not writing it all, but the recipient of this letter is the main cause of all the problems in his life. Not really. But Lance has always put the blame on him, it’s their thing.</p><p>_</p><p>Hey samurai,</p><p>Long time no see... </p><p>Being a badass marmorite must be pretty time consuming and amazing and all. I’ll definitely never be able to beat that. You always have to one up me, huh Keith?</p><p>The team really misses you. It’s really weird without your constant brooding silence and sarcastic remarks all around the castle. Who would have thought I would miss my rival so badly. Actually, now that I think about it, I hadn’t really noticed how much I miss you until now. I have no one to make fun of anymore.</p><p>And I don’t even have anyone to hang out with. Everyone’s sort of paired off I guess. Hunk and Pidge are doing all their genius-y science stuff all the time and I’ve tried helping but we all know science isn’t really my forte. I tried though… And all I got in return was those two brainiacs yelling at me to leave them alone. So… Not hanging out with them as much anymore.</p><p>Allura and Lotor are off canoodling all the time as well. Oh yeah, Lotor’s like a part of the team now. I don’t really like the guy. And NO it’s not because the Princess is into him. I’m glad she was able to find someone. He just seems off… Maybe it’s because he’s tried killing us multiple times. Yeah, that’ll do it. Um so yeah. Definitely not gonna hang around with them, I’ve done enough third-wheeling in my life.</p><p>And then of course that leaves Shiro and Coran… Who, don’t get me wrong, I love to death. But it’s just weird around them. Well… Coran is fine. Coran is Coran. All crazy stories and mustache jokes. Coran is fine to be around, even if he does try and get me to clean the entire castle. It’s just Shiro. He’s been weird lately. Off. </p><p>He yelled at me the other day, told me to be quiet. Felt shit honestly. You know, my hero basically telling me that all my ideas are useless and I’m not good enough to be on the team.</p><p>I know you said to stop worrying about my part on the team and to leave the math to Pidge and stuff… But I just can’t. I feel like I’m constantly in everyone’s way. Sometimes I feel like the only reason anyone keeps me around is because I’m the only one here to fly Red. If you came back I’m sure Shiro would be ready to throw me out into the depths of space immediately.</p><p>So yeah. I miss you. If you were here, I would actually have someone around to spend my time with. I could give you a manicure (because no offence, your nails are disgusting. You chew on them don’t you?) or even a haircut. You’re mullet is probably wayyyy longer now huh? You’re probably like a real-life Rapunzel by now… if Rapunzel was half-alien and had anger issues of course.</p><p>It’s kind of funny to picture you as some Disney princess. You suit it really, the long flowy locks, the dreamy eyes. Yeah I definitely see it. I wonder who your prince charming would be… Or I guess you’re Flynn Ryder, since you’re Rapunzel.</p><p>Hmm… who do we know that’s devilishly attractive, super funny and sarcastic, and has crippling self doubts. </p><p>Wait a minute.</p><p>That kinda sounds like me! Gee Keith, how lucky are you to have me as your knight in shining armor. I can assure you I would be the perfect prince to you. </p><p>This is funny. There’s no way you’re ever going to read this so I can spew out all this weird shit and you would never know. I need to write letters to you more often I think. This is really fun.</p><p>It’s pretty late over here. I couldn’t sleep (I feel like you, it’s weird) so I decided to write letters to everyone. But I’m feeling a bit sleepier now and I think I should probably hit the hay. It was good talking to you again Keith, can’t wait for you to return so I can give you a big hug and make fun of you again.</p><p>Goodnight Mullet x</p><p>your Lance</p><p>_</p><p>That night Lance had the best sleep of his life (if you ignore that he couldn’t get to sleep in the first place). He dreamt about that stupid mullet which probably helped a bit. It was a good dream. Keith was back on the team, Shiro wasn’t acting weird, and Lance finally felt like he belonged.</p><p>Of course, that dream soon faded as he sat around the table, everyone eating the disgusting goo breakfast. It was eerily silent. It’s been like that for a while now. Usually Lance would lead the conversations, talking about everything and nothing all at once, but recently he just hasn’t been up to it and no one else has taken to the job. </p><p>So they sit there and eat. In silence.</p><p>Lance doesn’t dare look at anyone, especially not Shiro. He feels like if he were to so much as look at someone the wrong way they’d have his head. It’s not a nice feeling. These people are supposed to be his closest friends - his family - but they feel like strangers.</p><p>Hunk and Pidge finish their breakfast first, the two of them rushing off quickly to finish whatever project they had started. Allura and Lotor followed soon behind them, going off to do their altean alchemy stuff or whatever. That left Shiro and Lance around the table.</p><p>Coran never showed up, which was weird but he must have just been fixing something somewhere around the ship.</p><p>Lance was staring at his bowl, desperate to not make eye contact or even look in Shiro’s direction. </p><p>“Allura told me your bayard turned into a broadsword. I’m impressed.” Shiro stated, his voice gravely and distant and distinctly not Shiro. It was Shiro’s voice but it wasn’t all at the same time. It was hard to explain.</p><p>“Uh thanks Shiro, I honestly kind of forgot about it since I’m not that good and I don’t have anyone to practice with.” Lance replied, playing with his food goo and still not meeting the other’s eye.</p><p>“You should keep practicing with it even if you don’t have someone to teach you. Don’t make excuses.” And at that he picked up his bowl and exited the room, leaving Lance to sit their all on his own.</p><p>Like usual.</p><p>He couldn’t even be bothered to finish his goo. He hadn’t had much of an appetite anyway.</p><p>Instead of finishing his breakfast, he trekked through the many halls of the castle. He had taken to exploring ever since Keith left and since everyone else on the team acted like he didn’t exist.</p><p>Lance used to explore the castle all the time when they first came out into space but as the war became more apparent and time consuming he didn’t have the time for it. He feels like he has all the time in the world now to just wander aimlessly. </p><p>The castle was like a maze. He kept ending up in the same places even after taking all different directions. Or maybe the castle all just looks the same. That could be it. He didn’t know where he was right now, but it couldn’t have been far from the main area since Coran was walking the same hall as him right now.</p><p>Actually, it seemed like Coran was walking right up to him right now.</p><p>“Good morning number three, Pidge asked me to grab some paper from your room and I found your letter to number four.” </p><p>Fuck. Had Lance left that out? He had put all the others into a box after he wrote them but he must have accidentally left Keith’s out on his desk.</p><p>“You didn’t read it did you?” Lance asked worriedly. It would be so embarrassing if Coran had read it.</p><p>“No, no of course not. I saw what it was and who it was for and immediately enveloped it and sent it for you.” Oh thank god he didn’t read i- Wait.</p><p>“Hold up, you sent it? You sent it where? To who? Keith?” This was bad, this was very very bad.</p><p>Coran looked confused as he replied. “Of course to Keith, who else would I send it to?”</p><p>Lance could do nothing but stare at Coran. He didn’t know what to say or do. He must have looked like a right idiot just standing there, but what else was there to do? His life was doomed.</p><p>Keith was going to get his letter and probably use it as blackmail or something. Or worse, he’ll hate Lance for the rest of their lives. He compared Keith to Rapunzel for crying out loud! And he basically confessed that he wanted to be Keith’s prince! This was awful. How could he be so stupid?</p><p>God, fuck, shit.</p><p>“Thanks Coran.”</p><p>Lance was running. He heard Coran’s ‘you’re welcome’ and he was gone down the hall. He ran through the maze of the castle hallways and found himself safely in his room. The letter was indeed not on the desk anymore, and just to make sure he didn’t imagine that interaction, he checked the box filled with all the other letters.</p><p>And of course, it wasn’t there. Coran had sent it to Keith. Fuck. Fuck fuckity fuck. This was not going to end well.</p><p>He’s not going to survive this.</p><p>_</p><p>It had been a week. A normal, alien-war filled week. They fought some battles, they ate some awkward meals and they continued through the days. There was no word from Keith.</p><p>Maybe, and this is wishful thinking on Lance’s part, Keith never got the letter. Now, Lance doesn’t know how alien mail delivery works but surely it wouldn’t be too hard to lose a letter in space. Who knew if the alien mailman could even find the Blade. After all, they’re like the most secret organisation in the universe.</p><p>Besides, alien mailman? That sounds crazy even to Lance.</p><p>There’s no way that letter actually got to Keith.</p><p>“Lance my boy! You have mail!”</p><p>So maybe he talked too soon.</p><p>Coran’s voice rang out from behind the door. Lance was currently in his room and Coran was assumedly on the other side of the door awaiting Lance’s response. </p><p>Lance stood up from his bed, walking over to the door and sliding it open. There he was, mustache and all with a little, white envelope in his grasp.</p><p>“Here you are.” Coran smiled, handing the envelope over and bouncing away, leaving Lance to stand there in the doorway. He let the door slide back shut and promptly fell against it, forehead hitting the metal but not hurting enough to distract him from the piece of paper in his hands.</p><p>This was it. This was where he opened this up and got stabbed. He and Keith will never be friends now. </p><p>He tore the envelope open, slipping the letter out and unfolding it. He was met with a lengthy message, maybe just as long as his own letter.</p><p>Lance closed his eyes, took a deep breath in, and began reading.</p><p>_</p><p>Hey Lance.</p><p>I’m really confused as to why you wrote me a letter. When Kolivan told me I had a message from team voltron I was expecting some pretty bad news, but I’m really glad it was this. I’ve reread the whole thing multiple times it’s basically ingrained in my subconscious.</p><p>All I can really say is wow. There’s a lot to unpack here. And we all know I’m not particularly good with words, but I’ll try my best to touch base on everything you said in your message.</p><p>I guess I’m just gonna go through your letter and give a response to each separate thing you say… I guess.</p><p>Badass marmorite huh? Is that how you see me? You think I’m badass and amazing. It’s weird to hear compliments coming from you since I’m so used to you bickering and all that. It is pretty time consuming, I won’t lie but it’s worth it. I’m saving the world. You would probably love being a “marmorite” and as much as you seem to think you wouldn’t be good enough for it, I think you’d be pretty badass yourself.</p><p>I’m sorry that you feel so alone over there. I kind of get it. The Blade isn’t really all about family bonding so a lot of the time it feels like I’m all alone over here too. Pidge and Hunk are weirdly smart, like out of this world intelligent. I was never able to understand what they were talking about. I’m impressed you even tried helping them since all of those scientific words seem like complete bullshit. I’m pretty sure Pidge makes up words sometimes just to mess with people. What even is science anyway? It’s not like we need it or anything. I think you should mess with them a bit. Hide some of their tools or something, it would be pretty funny. Pidge would go ballistic, I wish I could see it. If you end up doing that you need to tell me all about it.</p><p>Lotor and Allura huh? I can see it I guess. I’m glad she’s happy with him. I hope you’re ok. I know you said you don’t care and that you’re happy for her, but you had a pretty big crush on her didn’t you? Just know that you’re pretty amazing yourself, even if you’re not some scientific prince, or whatever. Hanging out with two lovebirds would be pretty uninteresting so I think you’re pretty smart for steering clear. No one wants to see some straight people making out. Gross.</p><p>Shiro’s been acting weird you say? It’s so strange that you say that because before I left I was getting some weird vibes from him as well. Something just didn’t seem right or something. I wouldn’t take anything he says to heart. You’re amazing Lance. You deserve to be a paladin because you’re brave and courageous and smart and you’re our fucking sharpshooter. No one can do what you do. Don’t listen to anyone’s bullshit.</p><p>I miss you too dummy. It’s so quiet all the time, sometimes I wish you had come with me. You’re so loud and talkative and I just really miss your voice. I don’t know how I feel about a manicure though. My nails are fine. So what if I bite them? I don’t need them for anything, they can be as ugly as they want to be. Also my hair is barely even that long. It’s grown of course but still nothing like you’re thinking. Definitely not Rapunzel length. </p><p>I don’t know how to feel about you comparing me to Rapunzel… We all know that if I were a Disney princess I’d be Mulan. She’s fucking awesome. I guess you’re not much of a Shang though huh? So if you were to be my prince you’d have to fit the criteria. You are much more of a Flynn Ryder, although I wouldn’t say devilishly attractive. Maybe like a “somewhat attractive” on a good day (kidding) ((not kidding)) (((i am kidding))).</p><p>I’m guessing you didn’t plan on giving this to me and I don’t know why I got it or how or who sent it but I’m glad I got it. It was really good to finally hear from you. I’ve been missing you a lot recently. You and the rest of the team. You mostly though. Don’t tell the others that.</p><p>I can’t wait to see you again. Soon, I promise.</p><p>Keith x</p><p>_</p><p>Holy shit.</p><p>That was not what Lance had been expecting. Keith didn’t blow up at him or think the letter was stupid. Keith responded in the same way Lance first wrote to him. This was bliss.</p><p>Is it too soon to write him another letter? What would he even say? He feels speechless right now.</p><p>If he even tried to communicate his emotions right now they’d probably fall out as a jumble of letters and symbols. A mess of blabber and keyboard smashes (if keyboard smashes were written in ink on a piece of paper, that is). </p><p>He’ll just wait a few days to write back, Keith surely won’t mind. He probably won’t even be thinking about it. Actually, Keith has probably already forgotten all about the letters. Forgotten about Lance.</p><p>It wouldn’t have been the first time after all.</p><p> </p><p>_</p><p>Keith was never the type to become distracted during important missions. He was usually so responsible and focused when it came to these types of things. But there was a first time for everything, and right now, in the heat of battle, he couldn’t get his mind off of one particular blue eyed boy.</p><p>When Kolivan had come to see him in his sleeping quarters all those days ago, Keith had assumed he was being sent on another important mission. But when the Galra before him revealed an envelope, well, he was kind of shocked.</p><p>Even more shocked when he opened it to find that it was from none other than Lance. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the familiar handwriting that had been long since ingrained in his brain ever since the Garrison. </p><p>Of course, the scratchy handwriting has matured since those very early days, but it is still very easy for the ex-red paladin to tell who it belonged to.</p><p>He had written back immediately and sent it off just as quickly. He knew if he thought about it too much he’d be too nervous to send it.</p><p>Right now though, he’s regretting it. It’d been days since he’d sent the letter and Lance still hadn’t replied. Maybe this was all a mistake. Maybe Lance was messing with him. </p><p>“Keith, focus!” yelled one of the Blade members as he tackles a Galra soldier that had been seconds away from shooting Keith down. Keith shook his head, sending the unimportant thoughts to the back of his, focusing on the fight before him.</p><p>The Blade had been informed that there was some sort of device, or something, on this ship that Haggar was planning to use to destroy Voltron. It was obvious that there was definitely something of importance here with all these sentries and soldiers everywhere.</p><p>Keith had never seen such a populated ship before.</p><p>He sliced his way through sentries, running past soldiers, ducking around corners to get to the location of the device.</p><p>Finally, he located it. The rest of the Blades were long behind him, stopping enemies from following him. This part of the ship was completely void of anyone though. It was ominous, why wouldn’t they have anyone guarding this area.</p><p>Something was off.</p><p>Keith walked through the halls, staying light on his feet in case this was all some kind of trap and someone was about to jump out at him. He made his way all the way to a door at the end of the abandoned hallway.</p><p>He pushed it open slowly, blade at the ready, but there were no enemies in there. There were however half a million Shiro’s surrounding him. They were sealed within tanks, unconscious. </p><p>What is this place? Why does Haggar need clones of Shiro?</p><p>Suddenly, a snippet from Lance’s note flashed into his head. It’s just Shiro. He’s been weird lately. Off. </p><p>Fuck. This was not good. He needed to get back to team Voltron.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I hope you liked the first chapter! Keep your eye out for updates! I'll also be posting updates on my twitter (@bisexualspies)!!</p><p>Kudos, comments and bookmarks would be appreciated!!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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